By Taiye Odewale Abuja–
There is a looming row between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate, as the red chamber is accusing the President of ‘illegally’ dipping hands into the Federation Account and giving the sum of N17trillion as bailouts to states without authorization by the National Assembly
These, the lawmakers believe, is a contravention of constitutional provisions
In the face of obvious challenges occasioned by their inability to pay the workforce, President Buhari, at different times, gave some palliatives, otherwise called bailout to the state governments since assuming office in 2015
The monies, put at N17trillion were, however, not part of the approved national budget
But the constitution forbids the president from spending any money accruing to the Federation Account without appropriation by the National Assembly as doing so, is considered an impeachable offence
Section 81 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 states inter alia: “
Mr President can never spend money without the approval of the NASS
” At yesterday’s plenary, the issue of the bailout funds given to state governments by President Buhari as well as the disbursement of the Paris Club refund, took the centre stage with the lawmakers unanimously agreeing that the next legislative day will be set aside to look into the action, which majority of them considered an infraction on the constitutional provision
Cumulatively, the President is said to have disbursed about N19 trillion to state government without seeking approval of the National Assembly
Coming up through a point order, Senator Samuel Anyanwu drew attention of the Senate to the ‘illegal’ disbursement of the fund
Aside querying the legality of the funds given out by the President, Senator Anyanwu also raised the question on the identity of the parliament or individual who gave approval to Mr President to spend money from the Federation Account as he’s been doing
And in a response, Senate President Bukola Saraki noted that the point of Order raised by Anyanwu was germane and therefore sought the permission of his colleagues to grant same to the lawmaker to consider a substantive motion on the issue in the next legislative day, a decision that was overwhelmingly accepted
Th e parliament is expected to reconvene on Tuesday for plenary business
Records showed that the president has released about N2437 billion as Paris Club Refund to states, while his government has given out about N175 trillion since 2015 as bailout under diff erent guises since 2015
The refund is in respect of over-deductions on Paris Club, London Club Loans and Multilateral debts between 1995-2002
For instance, in 2015, a salary loan of about N338 billion was disbursed to states
The term of the loan was 20-year and the purpose of the loan was to help states facing fi scal strain meet outstanding salary obligations
Interest rates of 9% was approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
This was swiftly followed by the N575 billion restructuring programme bond
The federal government negotiated this debt package through the Debt Management Office to allow states convert high interest bank debt into a 20-year tenured debt with interest rates set at 1483%
Again, In July 2015, the federal government remitted approximately N9218 billion to states from dividends worth $21 billion paid to the centre by Nigerian Liquefi ed Natural Gas Company (NLNG)
In July 2016, the federal government endorsed the allocation of N36bn from solid minerals savings to states as part of the routine monthly FAAC disbursements
A total of N1173billion was also disbursed to states, an amount taken from excess revenue generated from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT)
The sum, ordinarily, should go into the Excess Crude Account, but it was speedily distributed between the federal and state governments
In all, a total of N175 trillion has was disbursed to states as extra-statutory fund with the money spent without the state governors properly accounting for it
